What are owners experiencing with reliability of the BandG gear?

My boat is now three years old, we had no problems with reliability of the BandG gear in the first 12 months, and were happy with the gear. 

Over the next two years we have had:

 -two failures of VHF radios, requiring complete replacement

 - failure of the wind vane, requiring complete replacement

 - lock up of the precision compass during a software update, requiring return and reprogramming

- regular drop outs of AIS transmission, helped by not fixed by a software update

- Boat length and width set in AIS changed, seems like a conversion error between metric and imperial units. AIS unit returned for reprogramming. Now awaiting return.

We live in an area with limited service available so once a problem is beyond my capability we need to take the boat about 50NM to get assistance. The trip is tide and weather dependent so we have limited opportunities to do that.

Delivery times for spare parts have been heavily impacted by COVID and we can wait months for replacement parts. Over the last two years there would be more times when the system is not fully operational than fully operational.

Are others experiencing similar issues, and does there come a point when we work through new equipment issues, or can we expect this level of reliability to last long term.

Thanks

Gordon

Thanks, the boat was delivered with a V50, the issue on these units related to the charge cradle which stopped charging. That was replaced with a V60, which had  issues with drop outs of the hand set pairing, however, the main unit stopped powering up before the first problem was fixed! 

The good side is that all problems have been eventually resolved, though slower than I would have liked.

My main interest is to understand if others have similar issues, and any good ideas has to how they were fixed. Hopefully I have just been unlucky with early life failures and once we work though those I will see an improvement.

From advice we got on this forum, we never leave the handset in the cradle especially when we leave the boat. During charging both get very hot and this seemed to be the problem as both have been ok since

Good luck and stay safe

Paul

Having purchased our 2016 385 in February this year it became evident the handset wasn’t charging. I established the charge base station was getting power to it so thought the battery was dud, which I replaced myself after matching it online obtaining a replacement from “Cool Components” the battery comes partially charged, this allowed me to power up the handset and establish that the handset worked but placed in the cradle wouldn’t charge the battery.

After much chasing and dead ends a replacement charging cradle could not be obtained this was getting frustrating, venturing to the B@G stand at the Southampton boat show with cradle and handset in hand and after explaining the problem and with Tom Davies confirming unavailability of a replacement cradle, he shared a secret!

At the bottom of the handset there’s a rubber flap which covers a jack socket for headphone connection, but more importantly as the rubber insert extends at the back of the handset if it is pulled back at the top it reveals a USB 2 type A (old style) on connecting the handset via a suitable lead to the boats USB it charges the handset !! 

It is a simple matter to connect the power cable via one of the spare switches on the main switchboard.  You can then recharge for an hour or two after use and switch off the circuit.

Two wind vanes (the original model 508 and replacement model 608) failed. Have avoided the blue tooth version as I don't like climbing masts to change batteries). 

Two H5000 displays failed - one immediately took down the entire NMEA2000 network with it, while at sea at night in squally conditions, until it was disconnected and the system rebooted. 

One DST 200 triducer failed. 

One newer paddle-less 800 series triducer failed. 

One H50 handset failed. 

One V50 VHF failed. 

One wifi router was fried after a b&g software update. 

Some of these items were replaced under warranty at no charge. Others were replaced at 50% off. 

Net, B&G is superb when it works, but keep the customer service number on speed dial and get used to doing your own work. 

Must electr navigation suppliers use then (Raymarine etc)

We have the DST800 after 2 years the temp sensor failed

Replaced in warranty 2 years later the same problem 

I can live without reading the watertemp and spend the 350,- euro on cold beers 🍻 

I just came across your advice on the H50 after having tried to find all sorts of ways of charging my handset…… you have saved me a lot of hassle and money 

Cheers mate👍👍🤣👍👍

No issues with the VHF on our boat.  Its a V50, and because I have a spare,  I suspect nothing will happen to it :-)

That said:

1.  The 508 masthead units are notorious for failures.     I replaced one in the first year.

2.  NAIS 400 upgrade should not be done as small features not worth the upgrade problems occuring

3.  The AIRMAR DST was hitting the torpedo keel and reading 8' every so often.    To their credit AIRMAR replaced it free with a new one.

4.  The way Hanse wired the autohelm on my boat was ridiculous.    They had a 50AMP fuse in the cockpit locker for the pilot behind a 10AMP fuse in the WURTH panel.    In rough seas it would just pop.    I've since rewired it properly.

5.  The NMEA2000 bus addressing with B&G devices is fickle.     We have to power on our radio, *THEN* power on the H5000s,  *THEN* make sure we have wind and depth reporting,  *THEN* power up the ZEUS devices.     If you power things up out of order various items don't show up.   

It seems that most marine electronics people are off to the next networking standard and there is not much effort being put into my generation of electronics.   

Still,  it does what I want and I've shaken most of the above out of the system now.

Interested in your comment about the autopilot fuse.  I recently responded to a Facebook post from a boat that experienced autopilot failure on passage from Balearics to Sardinia - exactly what happened to me last year.  They were talking of returning to port and seeking an electronic engineer.

I was aware of the fuse on the pilot computer in the port locker so we replaced our fuse and continued without much drama other than the puzzle of why the fuse blew in benign conditions, and I advised them to investigate this which turned out to be their problem too.

I'm looking at the Wurth panel and can see the thick power cables for auto pilot but haven't worked out which fuse is related.  I "think" I had a 10A fuse on my pilot control which I upgraded to 15A to avoid it blowing in heavy weather, but still want to to blow if the wheel gets trapped (for example by a hand through the wheel!).

What changes did you make to your system?

I just came across your advice on the H50 after having tried to find all sorts of ways of charging my handset…… you have saved me a lot of hassle and money 

Cheers mate👍👍🤣👍👍